Heritage Foundation president Dr. Kevin Roberts emphasized in his Tuesday speech at the National Conservatism conference in Washington, D.C., that America’s true source of greatness is the family and that conservatives unapologetically oppose that which serves to weaken it — even if championed by fair-weather friends within the Trump coalition — and defend that which serves to strengthen it.
Roberts, whose organization’s so-called Project 2025 caused so much consternation on the left last year, further stressed the need for conservatives both to get “uncomfortably honest about our present crisis” and to reject the “temptation to separate the personal from the political, to believe that our private lives are of no concern to our public work,” as “that separation is a lie.”
‘The family’s decline is not a law of nature; nor is it an unstoppable force.’
Roberts, among the first speakers at this year’s NatCon, noted at the outset of his speech that whereas the stability of the great empires of yesteryear’s Europe rested on the monarchs’ bloodlines and on the strength of their thrones, America “bet her future on something humbler yet infinitely stronger” — “on what Chesterton called ‘the most extraordinary thing in the world’: an ordinary man and an ordinary woman bound in covenant love, passing on their faith and virtue to ordinary children.”
“We staked it all on the American family,” continued Roberts. “The family is the seedbed and safeguard of our grand experiment in ordered liberty — the source and summit of our political order, the true origin of our exceptionalism.”
Roberts noted that whereas America’s political architecture is still outwardly intact — “the Constitution that gives our body politic its structure remains in its glass case at the National Archives” — “the American family, the spiritual heart and soul that animates that Constitution, has grown weak, fractured, and hollow.”
The Heritage Foundation president noted that the weakening of American families — evidenced by a declining marriage rate, delayed marriages, an all-time low fertility rate, a staggeringly high number of abortions, and crushing loneliness among young Americans — was no accident but rather “the result of a deliberate campaign to uproot the most fundamental institution of human life.”
“You can call this campaign liberalism or enlightenment, rationalism or modernity — the name doesn’t matter,” said Roberts. “What matters is realizing that our current crisis has been centuries in the making.”
Roberts indicated that American conservatives are now in a position to do something about this crisis, which was brought about with the help of radical feminists and industrialists who dragged the mother out of the home; eugenicists like Margaret Sanger who promoted the notion that “children are a burden”; and educational activists like John Dewey who “shifted children’s formation from home and church to state institutions.”
“The family’s decline is not a law of nature; nor is it an unstoppable force,” said Roberts. “It’s the product of human choices — and human choices can change.”
“The American people have entrusted us with the power of government. They are asking us to make America great again. They are urging us to usher in a new golden age in American life. To honor their request, we have one clear task,” said Roberts. “We must do intentionally what the founders did instinctively: stake our future on virtuous and ordinary mothers and fathers.”
‘[Prudence] demands that we ask of every policy, every proposal: Will this strengthen the American family?’
Roberts suggested that it’s not enough to seek an end to DEI and Pride flags; to combat the “uniparty” interventionists’ prioritization of the “family of nations” over the families of Americans; and to rethink policies that work on the assumption that “maximizing GDP is an overriding and unspoken goal.”
Conservatives must take back their homes and live by example — entering into marriage, embracing its commitments, and remaining faithful through its trials; welcoming children into the home and giving them the love, discipline, and kitchen-table education they need to prosper; and ruling with prudence, which Roberts noted is the “opposite of ideology.”
Roberts noted that prudence “recognizes that the interest of the family and the national interest are not merely aligned — they are one and the same. [Prudence] demands that we ask of every policy, every proposal: Will this strengthen the American family? Will it advance the common good of the American people? Will it cultivate the virtues without which liberty cannot endure?”
“If the answer is no,” continued Roberts, “even if the proposal aligns with some past ideological commitment, prudence requires that we reject it.”
‘Prudence is not a retreat from conviction.’
Tariffs, for example, may have been imprudent years ago but, based on the needs of the family today, may be prudent now, suggested Roberts. He suggested further that conservatives ruling with prudence may simultaneously demand the deregulation of certain industries such as construction — in the interest of helping young couples afford homes — but greater regulation of other industries, such as pornography, sports betting, and social media, which adversely impact children and the family.
“Prudence is not a retreat from conviction. It’s the application of conviction to reality,” stressed Roberts. “In this moment, conviction and reality both tell us the same thing: The surest test of any policy, any law, any reform is whether it fortifies the institution upon which the future of our nation stands.”
Roberts’ apparent willingness to upset libertarians and strike at the liberal status quo is par for the course at the National Conservatism conference, a project of the Edmund Burke Foundation chaired by Israeli-American philosopher Yoram Hazony.
The project defines “national conservatism” as “a movement of public figures, journalists, scholars, and students who understand that the past and future of conservatism are inextricably tied to the idea of the nation, to the principle of national independence, and to the revival of the unique national traditions that alone have the power to bind a people together and bring about their flourishing.”‘
There have been several NatCon conferences in recent years both at home and abroad. Past guests and speakers include Vice President JD Vance, Republican Sen. Josh Hawley (Mo.), Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), elements of Blaze Media, and a host of international leaders of various political stripes.
The momentum and influence enjoyed by elements of the national conservatism movement have not gone unnoticed by liberals, who have lashed out in various ways, some more forceful than others.
Last year, for example, police stormed the NatCon conference in Brussels on the orders of a leftist mayor who appeared eager to shut down the event.
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